In the mist of all the excitement of the recent release of the iPad Mini, let’s take a look at one of the major benefits of the iPad Mini: it’s compact size. Many use their original iPads to add space in the backpack by minimizing the book load. With access to e-books and web-based articles and journals, there is no need to carry around bulky textbooks or print tons of pages when one has access to all of this on one tablet. Now, with the iPad Mini, the portability function of the iPad has expanded as the newer model has shrunk in size from the original tablet.
New iPad mini users (and old iPad users alike) should take this opportunity to utilize the benefits of iTunes U. iTunes U is an app created by Apple, inc. that enables the users of portable iOS devices to have free and complete access to courses from leading universities and other schools with the world’s largest digital catalog of free education content.
Even if your school isn’t on the list (most aren’t obviously), you can learn about something that your interested in right from your iPad Mini or other portable iOS device without spending large sums of money on books and the actual course.
A lot of us aren’t the scholarly types, but that doesn’t mean that iTunes U doesn’t have it’s benefits. For example, you wait until the last minute to write your research paper, and the on campus library is closed. The offerings of the iTunes U catalog is filled with credible sources.
Even if you like to plan ahead to write your papers,these credible sources make iTunes U an effective research tool for students of all levels all while reducing the weight that comes with gathering research for a project or paper. You can choose from journals, books, textbooks, lectures, and other resources for thousands of subjects. You can highlight and take notes just as you would with a print source (there’s an added benefit as you can’t highlight from library sources).
Adding all of this to the increased portability of the iPad mini, and you can be sure to add space in your backpack while still having everything you need for your courses.
Make sure to check out some of the Best iTunes U Courses, Classes and Universities!